RIP Overwatch on MMOBomb — For Now

Apart from maybe the occasional mention on the F2P cast, it seems we won’t be talking much more about Overwatch on this site — for a while, at least.

At BlizzCon, Blizzard confirmed the business model for Overwatch would most definitely not be free-to-play. You can pre-purchase the game now, either in a base variety for PC at $39.99, the Origins Edition for $59.99, or the Collector’s Edition, which comes with a Soldier: 76 statue, available from Best Buy, Amazon, or Gamestop for $129.99.

It’s a curious move, given Blizzard’s recent successful foray into free-to-play with Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm. There are also a lot of titles with similar gameplay coming out soon that will be free-to-play, like Gigantic, LawBreakers, Paladins, and more. Granted, this is Blizzard, and the marketing push has been extreme, so it’s not like Overwatch will have trouble getting an audience, but one of those other games could find a hole to exploit that lets it grab a significant portion of the market share.

If we had to guess, we’d think that the game will be B2P now, with a F2P switch coming in a year or two, after sales have slowed down. Business-wise, it’s not a terrible idea, getting early cash now and then cashing in on a wider population later, and it still might beat those other games to market. Still, it’s a little sad to think that we won’t be able to cover Overwatch here any more or play it when it comes out without ponying up the cash. It seemed perfectly suited for free-to-play, but apparently Blizzard doesn’t agree.

the author

Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of
experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online
Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

48 Readers Commented

Why people getting upset over a ps2 converting to a purchasable download /disc. Must be not that old to remember the old gen games that we loved to blow on or slap them on a disc repair machine. Don’t have the funds for it? student? go get that money over the weekend and buy it. I remember when I was young i used to ask people for work and when they ask me why, i told them because i wanted a game or toy. Learned a lot at 9 years of age LOL

That depends if that item you bought was wroth the money you spent. Think about it you are willing to spend $60 dollars on a game that will maybe go free to play within the next 2 years ? NOW STAY WITH ME. The base game is $60 dollars and on the side with will have a item mall where you can buy more things with more $$…… IN ORTHER WORDS this game isn’t $60 dollars think of it as a down payment for the game…… now people with $1000 of dollars will think nothing of this but I think its a poor way to run a game only aiming it those snobs who think of nothing but themselves…

Man…. there are a lot of angry people in this comment section, and all of their reasons are ridiculous. Srsly, who cares @ everyone. People play games; kids are people; broke people are people; we’re all people; we all play games. Games cost money; if you like the game, buy it; if you don’t, don’t; if you can’t afford it, save up (I mean, its $40 ffs, go mow a lawn or watch someone’s dog or something)… It’s really that simple, guys. Personally, I think Overwatch is pretty great. It is VERY different from Team Fortress 2, and the class design and map design both encourage team play in a way that feels more natural, and much less forced. Everyone will have fun (except those people who hate children and nationalities other than their own… they probably don’t know what fun is). 🙂

Thx God BLIZZARD… best thing i have heard today… No kids!! No poor people from 3th world countrys laging around cause of there shity inet con. Plz Blizzard make it pay per month like 30 or 40 Bucks so we can play without Kids and poor jobless scum…. Thumps Up for PLZ!!!

It’s a pretty great idea, it will accelerate the transition to f2p pretty fast. ( Nah, it won’t but still ) On a serious note, if other companies are doing it – people whine, even blizzard fanboys, when Blizzard is doing it, Blizzarddrones are eating the shit out of their asses before they get the chance to even try the product.

Agreed dude. I think it was one of the best idea for them not to go free 2 play. And 40 dollars isn’t much and the people who I talk to keep saying how it costs 60 dollars and they say it’s stupid to buy the 40 dollar one because they won’t get the cool expansion items in the other blizzard games. Lol well it’s on them and I don’t need those extra items since I don’t like many of blizzards games for personal reasons so it saves me $20 dollars.

)&(*&%%#%@$%%^ fckers they say it will be a f2p they set your HYPE and then they do this M(*&@($&_)(&*_(&_@&$_+@ and this is not the first game to do this kinda BS move …. remember “Homeworld Shipbreakers”
AND how this is will be a competitive versus TF 2 … the answer is – it won’t … cause TF2 is F2P a it will still RULE over the Overwatch

I could pay the money for it if I wanted no problem, but I can’t see what makes the game worth it, I would have played it/tired it if it had been free2play but there are so many of these games that I don’t feel like paying for it unless I REALLY like it… and honostly, the game does nothing for me. might as well play TF2…

Well, considering the price for it, i’d say all the characters will be unlocked. Will definitely buy this once it’s out and have a blast with it. And to all the butthurt people, stay poor and salty my friends. :^)

I am not for one broke nor am I unemployed. Or I wouldn’t for one have a $#@@ing computer. You assume because I wouldn’t waste my time paying for a over priced game that I am just broke. Sorry no I won’t waste my time on something that isn’t worth it I would rather save the money to buy toilet paper. There how is that saying for you ?

No, it’s when you said, “if you spend money on something that makes you poorer than someone who didn’t” that I assumed you must be broke and delusional to the point of not understanding how a capitalist society works. Have you tried proof-reading before posting something?

Apparently you cant understand the saying. If I had $60 dollars in my hand and didn’t spend it on the game while another guy did spend $60 dollars on the game that makes me $60 dollars richer than he is. Or do you just assume everyone who plays free to play has no money or no job if that is the case you’re even more of an asshole than I first thought you to be.

No, I don’t assume that F2P gamers are broke, you fucking clowns, or I wouldn’t be on this site to begin with. What leads me to this conclusion is that this saying sounds like it comes from the mindset of someone living in a second-world country.

I don’t know about you, but I come from a nation with a capitalist economy where those with higher income can spend $60 and still be richer than everyone else. Hence this saying makes no sense to me.

If there’s some sort of hidden meaning to this proverb, then feel free to enlighten me. If not, then I hope you don’t mind if I call you “peasant”.

No, I don’t assume that F2P gamers are broke, you clowns, or I wouldn’t be on this site to begin with. What leads me to this conclusion is that this saying sounds like it comes from the mindset of someone living in a second-world country.

I don’t know about you, but I come from a nation with a capitalist economy where those with higher income can spend $60 and still be richer than everyone else. Hence this saying makes no sense to me.

If there’s some sort of hidden meaning to this proverb, then feel free to enlighten me. If not, then I hope you don’t mind if I call you “peasant”.

Traveling if you’re wealthy, as opposed to “sitting in a chair all day” if you’re poor?
Still no clarification on that “saying” that I apparently don’t understand. Or was I correct in my assessment that it must have originated from a communist state.

I didn’t say anywhere whether or not I am particularly wealthy or where I spend my time. Taking a few minutes out of the day to leave some comments on a web page is hardly an indicator of either. Those are just baseless assumptions born out of frustration on your part, if not outright projection.

well gonna take my own advice and gonna stop here your ego is well over everything. The fact that you called us both peasants already says that enough. I don’t know about that other guy but I live in the United States and earn a six figure so not gonna waste my time here.

You have nothing to confirm they will all be unlocked, that is to say of course I have nothing to confirm they will be locked. However considering Blizzard loves having players work and earn things in every other game they make it puts history on my side.

how do you know that its gonna go free to play do u have a time machine can u read the future r u jesus? no so dont talk about the game going free to play it wont likely go free to play for example WoW has gone down in sales lately is it free to play? some aspects of it but it is still indeed a sub game so dude get ur review right

lol dude why so butthurt? maybe you should calm down and go do something else outside of the internet its getting on your nerves, you might also want to read again the article, specially the part where he said “If we had to guess” before showing your nails.

Do you even know how the market works? Games go f2p if the p2p or b2p model can’t sustain it’s existence, WoW certainly didn’t go f2p, but it certainly might in the future; it’s a probability, which has increased with blizzards actions regarding the game lately.

To be honest wasn’t even looking forward to this game at all and I don’t even play any of their games at all now. I used to play hearthstone but even that is nothing but a sink hole for people with money just laying around on their floors to dump in to the best cards.

Another thing thats pressing is this fake free to play garbage that every company is doing to get high premiums which will boil well over what they even put into the game because rich people seem to not care about what they spend on (or their kids anyway). So what they do is trick people into buying a game as “free to play” so that they can feel like the elite few who got to play the game… This has been happening for a while now and I don’t see it stopping any time soon.

Oh ya to the people who state they need the money to develop the game more I can tell you right now you know nothing about it at all. When you get in to a gaming business you either get support from a major company to start out or you flop its that simple this crap about needing founder packs to support the game is a complete lie. IN most cases they use founder packs as a means to see how much people are willing to spend on their game and adjust accordingly. Take dragomon hunter as a prime example for this tactic that “failed”.

It is nothing special. Another take on a 16 years old idea. It’s not even a good shooter, more like a cartoony first-person MOBA. As if we didn’t have enough of those. Sure, it will be extremely polished (hell, it already is more polished than most finished games, that’s what Blizzard is good at), user-friendly, whatever.

For me it doesn’t change anything, because no matter how much you polish a pebble it won’t become a diamond. And I am slowly but steadily getting too old to be attracted to cute polished pebbles, sorry. >_>